Description:
Plate profile tool used for forming the backs of plates while being made on a revolving plaster mold; the profile was made from stoneware clay, found at the Spode Factory site; tool has a knob shaped handle which is cylindrical, the tool flares out from the handle on both sides to be a sort of wiper; the base of the tool is cut with a profile of the plate's reverse with a foot rim. This example is incised on the top of the tool with the words, "Gadroon/ 4 in." According to Robert Copeland, "Manufacturing Processes of Tableware in the 18th and 19th Centuries," p. 74, "The foot ring, like the other surfaces on the back, is formed by a profile tool. In the mid-19th century this was of mild steel held in an arm which may be lowered by hand onto the clay. The equipment is called a jigger: the origin of this word may derive from the plate mold being held in a "jig" or "head." For about 200 years, however, many platemakers made their own profiles from clay, forming the tool over a mould of the item to provide a blank of roughly the right shape and size and adding a knob. The angle of the tool, and especially of the "frog" which forms the foot ring, was most important. A badly made tool could drag the clay which would render the process tedious and might cause imperfect ware. This tool was called a "pitcher" profile."
Subjects:
Pottery; Stoneware Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.13.16 |
